Black Elm College | 18+

Chapter 35: Elsie

"This is weird."

Nico steps away from the door, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Only if you make it weird."

"Hm, I won't. I don't need to. This stays freaking weird." I close the door behind me, stepping into the relatively pleasant freshness of the morning. He starts walking and I join beside him, sipping on my smoothie.

It only takes a few seconds before he shares my opinion: "You're right, it's a bit weird." He, too, sounds half asleep.

I let out a small chuckle, not awake enough to laugh. "See."

I take another sip, flavors bursting in my mouth. I sigh inwardly. Sarah's smoothies are the best.

"Thank you for accepting to police me, by the way. At least it's not that bad; weird but not annoying."

He shrugs. "No problem, I don't have to do much. Besides, you're fun." He grimaces. "Though I'm sure you'd have preferred to have no one policing you at all."

I give a little sigh. "Yeah."

He gives me a weird look, like he has questions and thoughts he'd want to share but keeps for himself out of politeness.

I wave a hand at him, smiling. "Go on, ask. I swear I won't be mad."

"I can't picture you mad." He snorts, before a few silent seconds follow. His face slowly turns into a frown. "Ok, tell me to shut up if I overstep. I know it's not my place to ask but I don't understand." He pauses, his eyes searching the inside of the college's coffee shop as we pass by. He looks away, confusion evident on his face as he refocuses on the matter at hand.

"You told me everything is fine between you two. Yet, Woods assigns someone to you when it clearly bothers you. And more generally, I can't fathom how the lively and kind person you are gets along with the overly powerful, easily annoyed, inconsiderate and arrogant person he is – even if I have a certain bias. You two share few to no signs of affection in public, there are no clues pointing to him caring for you and I can't understand if you work. Are you sure you're okay in the relationship? Again, tell me to shut up if I'm wrong because I tell from what I can see."

I blink, my mind going blank for a second. "I... Yeah, okay. I think I understand... The thing is, without getting into details, he wasn't really given the choice to assign someone to me or not. I think all of it bothers him more than it bothers me." I take another sip, thinking about how to answer the rest.

I can't deny Tim's behavior is sometimes blunt or inconsiderate; he's never cruel nor mean because he feels like it, he just doesn't give a shit about how random people might take the truths he says.

I close my eyes, wanting to go back to bed. It's too early to think.

"When it comes to the rest, I think it's the 'certain bias' plus the fact that you don't know him that makes it hard to believe that we work. And yes, he's kind to me, though that's nice of you to worry. We're different but I'm more than okay in the relationship." I stretch my arms, stifling a yawn. I'm glad math is my first class today; I'll be able to rest.

He scoffs. "I can't imagine you mad, I sure as shit can't imagine the dude kind."

I groan and he just laughs.

I throw him a pointed glance. This is getting old. "Are you done?" I ask.

He raises his hands in surrender, as if he was about to say the same thing. "One last thing, just so you know I'm not a jerk, I would have said the exact same thing if Woods was there... Actually, I would have said a lot more." A proud grin spreads on his face.